Netflix to open studio in NY

Netflix is set to open a new 170,000-square-foot studio in Brooklyn, New York next month.

Based in the Bushwick neighbourhood, the facility includes six sound stages, which have enough space to film two TV shows at the same time or one blockbuster movie, as well as editing suites, meeting rooms and a commissary. 

Netflix has pledged to spend more than $100 million in the city and to create thousands of jobs. In 2019, the company leased two facilities in New York: a 100,000-square-foot office in Manhattan and the Brooklyn production space. The company has spent the past couple of years working with owner Steel Equities to retrofit the latter. 

By opening a studio in Bushwick, Netflix is giving a big vote of confidence in New York as a production hub.

“This is really important for New York. It’s not just a nice to have. It’s a real economic driver,” said Anne del Castillo, the commission of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.

The number of projects produced in New York has more than doubled since 2015 thanks, in part, to a state tax incentive program that allocates $420m a year in giveaways to attract productions. 

The opening of the studio in Bushwick is also a sign of the broader return to normal for the entertainment industry. New York was home to more than 70 different TV shows before things ground to a halt last year amid Covid-19 restrictions. Recently, the number of shows being produced has rebounded to the same levels as before the pandemic.